After The First Death
by DMBfan
Summary: Cowrite between DMBfan and JayJay3493. Jake witnesses a mugging goen bad. He does his best to keep quiet about it but someone will do anything to keep him quiet. Soon Jake must man up and stands up for himself. Told from Jake's POV. Rated T for violence


This is a new cowrite between myself and JayJay3493. It's told exclusively from Jake's POV. We would appreciate reviews. Enjoy.

**Disclaimer: We own nothing.**

Chapter 1 The Swim Meet and Ouch

My name is Jake. Actually that's my nickname. My full name is Jacob Andrew Baker. I was born on June 7th almost twelve years ago. In two weeks I'll be twelve. I can't wait. My mom is throwing me a big party out by our brand new pool. It's going to be awesome. All my friends are coming plus some random people who my sister Sarah invited. Hey, more presents for me.

I attend Evanston Middle School. I'm in the sixth grade and I wouldn't say I'm popular but I have a good group of friends. My best friend in the world is Ethan Marshall. He's a month older then me and we do everything together. We're almost like brothers. Not that I need a brother. I have twelve siblings.

Right now I'm waiting as my mom finishes putting sun screen on my back. In twenty minutes I'm going to be competing in a two lap freestyle swimming race. My team needs first place to win. I couldn't put more pressure on myself if I wanted.

"Mom, are you going to use the whole bottle?" I asked as mom squirted more into her hand.

"You got fried last time. I don't want that to happen again," replied Mom. I frowned. I'm light skinned and burn easily.

It kinda really sucked that I burned easily, but, there was not much I could do, so I dealt with it. It's not like it was the hugest deal, even though the burningness of the rays hurt. If that makes sense. If burningness is a word...if it's not it is now.

"It doesn't matter," I told Mom, "if it just washes off in the water anyway."

"It's 100 waterproof. It says so right there. _Guaranteed,_" she informed. I rolled my eyes. Waterproof...that was a load of crock. I had some 'waterproof shoes.' Yeah, they got wet.

I wasn't too emabarrassed that she was loading me with sunscreen...on account of nobody else was around. Once she'd finally finished, she turned to me. "Good luck," she said. "Not like you'll need it. Gosh, you swim so fast you're like a shark. Do good, okay? Let's win this thing." She was trying to be enthusasitic. Dad was much better at this.

"Okay, dude," I said. I watched her leave, and did a few stretches. I popped a couple of Nerds in my mouth and headed out to the pool area. The stands were full of people, about a one fifth of them were my family. Like I mentioned, there's tweleve of us. We were always willing to route each other on, and be there when we wanted, or tried for something.

I wanted to win this one. I needed to win this one. We took our positions on the podium. I was next to John Brown and Louis Abram. They were both really fast, but I knew I could beath them. I looked over at Ethan, gave him a small salute for good luck, and waited. When the gun shot, I was in that water, going as fast as I could. The water moved with me. I loved the water, it was my ticket. Dad said, "you swim, Jake. Swim as fast as you can, and do your best and you're a winner in my eyes."

So, I did. I kept going, not stopping, not caring about breathing until I got to the other head. I was a good foot ahead of everyone else...I think it was that much. I hit the last lap, and reached the other end of the pool, tapped the side of it, and heard the buzzer. I'd finished before everyone else...a good four seconds before everyone else. Ethan finished third, but we won. And we had fun doing it.

I jumped out of the pool, and immediately was sworn with people to congratulate. I grabbed Ethan, and we did that kind of gangster hug thing. After I got dressed, and my family was all congratulatory as well, and I collected my medal, and we got the picture taken with the big trophy that was going to be on display at the school, I started to feel a little funny. I was overwhelmed, and exhausted. I couldn't grasp the fact that I'd actually one, came out on top, beat everyone else. I was shaking that's how excited I was. But it felt good. I wanted to scream that's how good it felt.  "Good job, dork," Sarah told me. "I'm surprised you won," she joked, and smiled. "And your back isn't burnt," Mom noted. "Your welcome."

"Yeah, yeah," I said. Ethan came over to me. He really wanted to win, but, he'd lost to two people.  "We'll see you in the car," Dad said, "come on guys, in the car"

"Yeah, leave Jake alone with his lover !" joked Sarah. "Shut-up," I said, softly. My belly did a jump and I burped. Ethan laughed as he heard me do it.

"That's so gross," he laughed. I smiled and kicked his shin a little.

"So, Jake. Rachel Vaughn was in the stands," murmured Ethan as we walked towards Ethan's mom. Ethan had to leave early to watch his brother's soccer game.

"Good. She saw me win and thinks that's cool," I replied. Ethan giggled as we reached his mom. Annie Marshall hugged Ethan and kissed his cheek. Ethan blushed and I had to smile.

"I'm so proud of you," she exclaimed. Ethan's mom smiled and looked at me.

"Congratulations, Jake," exclaimed Ethan's mom. I grinned. I like praise. My belly did another flip and I fought back a burp. Ethan's mom was in a rush so I gave Ethan a high five and promised to call him that weekend. Ethan nodded as his mom drove away. I groaned as my belly cramped a little. I shook it off and returned to my family.

………………….

A victory party would be held later. Too many things were going on that night. Sarah had lacrosse, Henry had band practice, Charlie had football, Lorraine had, well, being Lorraine, Mike had soccer or hockey, Mark had nature club, Kim and Jessica had junior book club, and the twins had tee-ball. So it was just mom and I in the house for the night. No one would be back until ten. So Mom and I ordered some Chinese food and ate it while we watched a movie on Mom's bed. We do this a lot. Swimming ends around four so sometimes it's just mom and I for six hours.

"Is there another egg roll?" I asked. Mom nodded and handed me one.

"Jake, there's pork in your teeth," announced Mom. I barred my teeth and mom picked the piece out. That's so gross. Why do moms do that?

"Got it," explained Mom.

"That's so gross," I moaned. Mom smiled and went back to her rice.

"It's no big deal, Jake. I changed your diaper when you were a baby," replied Mom. As if on cue I farted.

"And deal with your smelly room," added Mom. I moaned and gripped my stomach. I had a bad stomach ache. Worse then anything I had ever had before.

"Jake?" asked Mom.

"My stomach," I barely managed to whisper. I gagged and farted again. Mom had me lie down on my back and held my shirt up. She started to feely my belly. When she touched the tip of my belly button, I winced.

"OW!" I snapped. Mom frowned and picked me up.

"We're going to the hospital," she announced. "I think you have appendicitis." Oh great. Sarah had just had that like a month ago. That meant surgery. Yikes. I hope it's only gas.

…………….

I wasn't so lucky. It was appendicitis and I needed surgery. Mom kissed me on the face like a million times before the surgery. I barely remember being put to sleep. I would find out later that my surgery went well. I slept peacefully with a tube in my mouth as doctors opened me up. They removed my appendix, which had already ruptured, and cleaned out my belly. Then, after a little over ninety minutes, stitched me back up. Awesome. When I woke up, my family was there.

I blinked a lot trying to clear my vision. I barely had time to breathe before my family members started asking a million questions. I didn't answer any of them. Even if I understood a word any of them had said, I probably wouldn't have answered them.

"The doctor said you'll be okay," Dad told me. "I know I'll be okay," I said. I detected the softness in my own voice. I looked up at everyone. I was glad they were all there. I wasn't too glad that I was there, but, I guess it happens to most people eventually.

Sarah looked a little impatient. "Okay!" She said, "let us see the stitches!" she ordered.

I sighed, but in my head I was excited to have all the attention. I'm not an attention whore, but living in a big family with eleven other kids, and a dog, and with parents both working a lot, it was nice to have all eyes on me for once. I carefully lifted up my shirt and showed them the stitches.

 "Did it hurt?" Kyle asked. 

"Ugh, duh," I replied.The nurse then entered.

"I'm sorry gang, but visiting hours are over," she announced. She smiled and left the room. I ended up exchanging about a million hugs with everyone. Some of the impatient kids took off to the car, and Dad told everyone else to leave, gave me one last quick goodbye, and left. I was alone with Mom. After the whole teeth-picking thing, it was slightly awkward being alone with her in a room. 

"What a day," she said. 

"Yeah," I agreed.

"I won a race, and lost my appendix. I'm glad it happened this way and not vise versa, though." Mom chuckled a little.

"Well, get some rest. You need to regain some strength. We'll stop by tomorrow." 

"Okay."

 "I love you."

 "Love you, too."  I went to sleep, completely unaware of the events that were going to happen soon.


End file.
